BOSTON — Picture being a fly on the wall inside Robert Kraft’s office. Or, better yet, imagine what’s going through the Patriot owner’s mind right now.
It’s tough to not wonder what Kraft is thinking, especially after his team suffered one of the most embarrassing and humiliating losses of all time against the Raiders, thanks to one of the worst plays in NFL history in the process.
It’s not far-fetched to assume Kraft is royally upset over the football sins that were committed in Sin City, ones that have left the Patriots the butt end of many jokes across the league.
By now, everyone has watched, and re-watched the boneheaded play that led to the Raiders game-winning score. The improvised hook-and-lateral the players attempted to pull off will go down in infamy. Somehow, the Fox cameras didn’t flash to the owner’s box after that spectacle. One former Patriot told the Boston Herald via text he was “embarrassed” by what he watched. He wasn’t used to seeing Patriot players “not knowing the situation.”
Meanwhile Julian Edelman, who was at the game, couldn’t contain his frustration. Edelman dropped an F-bomb after seeing the collapse up close in a private suite at Allegiant Stadium
“What the f--- are we doing?” the former Patriots wideout yelled in a clip that showed up on Twitter. “What are we doing?”
Kraft has to be wondering the same. Surely this dysfunctional mess can’t be sitting well.
During his near 30 years of ownership of the team, he probably hasn’t seen a group more ill-prepared to handle critical situations as this one. He probably hasn’t seen a more inept offense, either.
Timeouts to nullify scores? False starts in the red zone to take points off the board? Numerous delay of game penalties because the play call wasn’t delivered on time?
What happened Sunday in Las Vegas was simply the icing on the cake, or the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back, depending on how you want to look at it. Because these problems have been an ongoing theme throughout this season and beyond, especially when it comes to the offense.
It’s certainly not an endorsement of Patriots coach Bill Belichick, since he’s the one who took over the unit with two coaches with little to no experience running an offense. He’s the one who decided Matt Patricia and Joe Judge would take Mac Jones and the offense to the next level. Patricia and Judge have created more questions than answers, and most of those questions are coming from the players being coached by the duo.
We’ve seen players speak out in the locker room, and on the field. Jones’ blow ups have become a weekly occurrence. And most of his rants have been aimed at Patricia.
Again, what must Kraft be thinking seeing his quarterback and 2021 first-round draft pick completely unhinged during games? A frustrated and volatile Jones was awful against the Raiders.
He had arguably his worst game as a pro. He couldn’t hit wide open receivers, and saying he had a short fuse is an understatement. It didn’t take much for him to blow his top.
And unlike past games, however, he didn’t have much of a leg to stand on with all of his bickering and complaining. Putting aside calls getting in late, and needless timeouts being burned, the play calls were there for Jones.
He was just miserably off target with his throws. While Jones has been pretty much let off the hook given the ridiculous situation he was put in, his constant whining during games has gotten to be more than a little annoying.
As for the players on offense, they’ve been trying to make the most of working with coaches who are out of their element, but that’s worn thin. All of which brings us back to Kraft.
One recent report by NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran suggested he was going to wait until the season played out and gather all the evidence and intel before deciding how to handle things. Guess that makes sense, since there’s still a slim chance the Patriots will make the playoffs.
But whether they do or don’t, Kraft has some important decisions to make.
Even with Belichick being the one to blame, and the ringleader of all of this chaos, it’s hard to fathom Kraft firing his six-time Super Bowl winning coach.
Other head coaches in the same situation would have already been canned for poor job performance and decision-making. But this isn’t just any coach, and therein lies Kraft’s conundrum.
By the same token, that doesn’t mean he won’t strongly suggest changes on the coaching staff. But we’ll have to see if that ultimatum comes to fruition.
It just seems incredibly obvious that Belichick can’t keep his pals in their current posts. He can’t have Patricia and Judge anywhere near the offense next year. Kraft has to make it clear that Belichick needs to come up with real solutions, as opposed to getting his friends on the cheap with their former teams still paying them.
Even though all the evidence hasn’t been gathered, it still has to be obvious to Kraft that Belichick needs to bring in a legitimate offensive coordinator. Not some coaching experiment with fired head coaches.
And changes might also have to extend to the coaching staff beyond the offense, but getting Jones experienced offensive coaches has to be the priority and first order of business.
If Belichick isn’t willing to budge, then Kraft has to decide whether it’s worth it to keep the status quo, or move on from his sure-fire Hall of Fame head coach and clean house.
The Patriots are 1-3 since Thanksgiving and are more than halfway toward another end-of-season swoon. Earlier in the year, Kraft expressed his displeasure with not having won a playoff game since 2018 and expected better things in 2022, especially with all the money he spent in free agency the previous year.
Was that just lip service for the fans, or was he legitimately displeased and ready to take action if the team didn’t do better than its one-and-down in the postseason last year?
At this point, we can only guess and speculate what the Patriots owner is saying behind closed doors, but it can’t be good. Surely he has an end game in mind.
